In a variety of applications, particularly semiconductor device manufacture process, material needs to be removed from a substrate or other workpiece. First, material may be deposited on a substrate or workpiece. Portions of the material may then be removed. Sometimes, the material may be removed as part of the normal process. Other times, material may be removed because it is undesirably deposited in certain locations.
Along these lines, in damascene chip wiring methods, typically material is deposited over all surfaces on a substrate. A portion of the material is then removed by polishing to leave material in desired locations. Among the various processes involved in damascene chip wiring methods, apart from the photolithography step, the chemical mechanical polishing step is typically the next most expensive step.
Typical chemical mechanical polishing apparatuses have a low throughput. This contributes to the comparatively higher cost of chemical mechanical polishing.